artist’s statement

Barbara McLean is a graduate of Graphic Design (Sheridan College) and has a BFA with a major in fine art (NSCAD University).

Both abstract landscapes and more completely abstract paintings which lie at the heart of my art practice rise from a response to my home environment. I want to share the sense of wonder and privilege that I feel living in rural Nova Scotia. 

The abstracts, though connected to nature in their very organic way of “becoming”, are perhaps more searching than the landscape work. They reflect my philosophy of life and investigate the need to find one’s way through a painting, a day, a life—as an explorer and adventurer—as one who welcomes the challenge of the unknown. The canvases illustrate chance and circumstance, diversions and alternate routes, but perseverance and optimism is always in evidence. 

My current artistic investigation is founded on the need to be noted, the incentive to leave a personal mark whether it be the intrusive scrawl on the wall of a public washroom or the awe inspiring drawings of the caves in Lascaux; a call to some anonymous and hoped for other to witness—“I am here, in this place, at this time”. The work functions both as an investigation of the marks of others and at the same time a personal statement within the theme itself and will culminate in an exhibition in 2012, at ARTsPLACE, Annapolis Royal.

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